During our Kumano Kodo hike in Japan we had met a brother and sister from Sydney who had been less than enthusiastic about their city. As a result we entered Sydney planning for a more relaxed pace to this section of the trip to refresh ourselves between campervans.
We arrived in Sydney in the early evening, navigated our way through to Kings Cross station and then followed other London-sounding roads to our Airbnb attic studio room (with mini art gallery). We picked the closest restaurant at random, and then were treated to some of the best Thai food we had ever eaten! For anyone going to Sydney it was called Eat Thai on Victoria Street.
The next day was beach day. Having friends who had already researched the beaches of Sydney for us we were heading straight to Manly Beach, instead of the closer famous Bondi beach. One of the major perks of Manly beach is the journey, as it includes a 30 minutes ferry ride past the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.
Another perk for Claire was the surfing. Whilst Gareth was looking forward to getting to sit still for a few hours, Claire couldn’t possibly go to Sydney without at least trying to surf. As well as its large sandy beach, Manly has a surf school and some great surfing conditions for beginners so more than met both of our needs. Claire spent the morning mastering surfing/drinking sea water/being shark bait whilst Gareth enjoyed a bit of peace and watched from the shore. We regrouped for lunch and then wandered along the promenade via ice creams and Australian water dragons to Shelly Beach, a more secluded bay filled with (you guessed it) shells, for a quick dip in the Tasman Sea until a rogue dark cloud rolled over and brought a slightly early end to what had otherwise been a gorgeous sunny beach day.
We caught the Ferry back to the city as the sun was setting and wandered round the city wharf in a failed attempt to have fish and chips by the sea.
The city of Sydney is almost completely surrounded by National Parks. It would have been a travesty if we had come all this way without venturing into one of them, and as a result we had put Blue Mountains National Park on our Sydney ‘to-do’ list. The main entry point to the Blue Mountain region is via Katoomba which can be easily (and cheaply) accessed via a 2 hour train from Sydney, and linked up with public bus services running to all the main sights. Following a bit of on-the-train research we had picked two areas to explore: Wentworth Falls (a 187m three tiered waterfall) and the Three Sisters (a rock formation and main tourist attraction of the area) and as the Wentworth Falls bus arrived first, our order of service was set!
We soon discovered that the Blue Mountains are not what makes this National Park so special (although they do look blue when seen from a distance); instead it’s the gaping chasms that separate them. We spent about an hour or two traversing the cliffs around and across the Wentworth Falls, in a mixture of awe and incredulity at the first Australian explorers who had decided these would be good locations for footpaths!
Having enjoyed the views across the gorges so much we decided to extend our afternoon walk by getting off our next bus early and walking from the Leura Cascades to the Three Sisters via the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. This proved to be an excellent decision as took us past multiple lookout points along the valley to marvel and the waterfalls, cliff faces and beautiful bird life (both above and below us).
We eventually arrived at the Three Sisters themselves, or more precisely at sister number one, which can be accessed via a bridge across the chasm. We decided not to descend the full 900 steps (!) of the Giant Stairway, which takes you down the valley below and instead headed along the cliff top to Echo point for ‘the photo’ of the Sisters that all us tourists really come for!!
Our final day in Australia didn’t get off to the perfect start; the parkrun closest to our Airbnb had been cancelled! Fortunately Gareth managed to locate another a mere 40 minutes commute away and we got to the start line with seconds to spare. Gareth left Claire for dust in this battle who clocked her worst performance of 2019 (probably not at all related to staying up until 2am reading the night before!). Another nice park, with a cricket pitch, and some old brick kilns that made us feel like we were back in our old house in Bedfordshire.
After our early start the rest of our day was spent ambling around more of the city sights and the botanical gardens, and getting ourselves prepared for our next stop: New Zealand.
Australia Summary
- Best view:
- Gareth – view of Mount Field National Park from Seager’s Lookout.
- Claire – In the Blue Mountains from one of the lookouts between Leura Cascades and the Three Sisters
- Most enjoyable day:
- Claire – Mount Field and Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary
- Gareth – 100% agree (shame we didn’t do the Bush Golf on that day too!)
- Biggest surprise:
- Gareth – Not being a city person, I was really surprised that I liked Melbourne so much. It felt like a nice place to live as well as to visit.
- Claire – The amazing birdlife. I’d just never really considered how different it would be. They were so bright and had such different songs to the UK. The first couple of days in Melbourne and the Dandenongs were really special.
- Most fun activity:
- Claire – Surfing on Manly Beach,
- Gareth – all the hiking was really fun, there were lots of great views and interesting wildlife to see (maybe the adrenaline rush of worrying about snakes all the time made it a bit more exciting too!)
- Coolest wildlife:
- Gareth – I can’t really pick, but feeding Kangaroos wad great fun and visiting the Blue/Little/Fairy Penguins in a natural setting was another unforgettable experience.
- Claire – has to be feeding the Kangaroos, one of them held my hand to keep it steady whilst she was feeding and it was amazing!
Claire and Gareth go travelling! 